Recruiting 101-Today Is A Good Day...For Most Of Us

As I do every morning , I read Newsday , The Times and The Post, while I labor on my exercise bike, trying to convince myself that I am am in fact burning calories.

I bemoan the fact that my cardio levels continue to decline, even after my 3rd attempt at completing the Insanity work out series. As I cycle, I read and wonder how Israel will continue to show restraint in an ever threatening environment created by this mad man Ahmadinejad. I see the stories about the economic struggles that many families face...and of course I read about this ever increasingly vitriolic political environment. As always, I wish I had some control over all these significant issues.... and then.....I calmly turn to the sports page and leave all these worries behind.
But today was different for two reasons.

This morning I received an email from the Dad of a former Sting player who has since graduated West Point. His Dad informed that his son is now an Infantry Platoon Leader with the first Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. The Dad told me that those Sting days were some of the fondest memories he had with his son. What an amazing compliment from such a great family. And I do remember the young man as if he was playing for me yesterday. He was a tough , no nonsense kid, a great competitor on the lax field and also a great high school wrestler....just the type of young man we need defending our ever perilous freedom. For those moments thinking back, stuck in time, remembering this family, time did in fact stand still. It was a great way to start my day!!

As I cycled through more stories in Newsday, my heart came to a slowed and painful beat. I saw the pictures of the grieving family of a young Marine from Oceanside N.Y named Greg Buckley , who was recently killed in Afghanistan. I stared at the photo of the grieving parents, hunched over in pain as the procession to honor their son unfolded at the funeral home. I simply cannot imagine , in my most vivid dreams, what those parents must be experiencing. The pain, the anguish, the intense heart ache must be all consuming and over whelming. How does a parent ever recover from this loss...I suspect most never do. Yet they take solace in the fact that their son or daughter chose to serve...to defend this country , to live a life with purpose and pride like no other.

From what I read about the young man, he was an athlete in high school , a good kid, just like our own children. Yet he was one of those few who chose to make a difference , he chose not to head off to college... but instead he became one of those fearless young men and women who allow comfortable guys like me to get up every morning and head to my bike and just live my life with little fear of anything other than my next tax bill. And for many of you, your most pressing concern just may be facilitating the next step in the recruiting process for your son or daughter. Not an insignificant issue given the ever increasing early commitment mania. But relatively speaking , just another privilege we enjoy, rather than a cause for serious concern. Your child will eventually find a school and they will most likely thrive, regardless of how well they do on the lacrosse field at the college level.

It is young people like Greg Buckley who allow us all to enjoy our love of lacrosse and the other great pleasure we pursue with our families. We are in fact all united in this cloistered little LACROSSE COMMUNITY we live in. We have so much to enjoy watching our children compete on the lacrosse field rather than a battle field. Our lives are one of expectation , anticipation and realization of little pieces of dreams as our kids mature as athletes. For the Buckley family, those pieces of their lives have come to a torturous end. But were it not for the families like the Buckleys, who raised such a fine young man to stand between us and the animals who live to crush our way of life , I cringe to think what our daily existence would be like. God forbid we would ever have to confront these thuggish Neanderthals who value only death and martyrdom. I know in my heart of hearts they will never come to appreciate what we value. I personally believe they belong in caves since they abhor freedom and the modernization of a global society. Of course they will not retreat to caves, they in fact plot and scheme on a daily basis to destroy us. How much our world has changed, but how secure our lives thankfully remain....however tenuous.

So, as many of you get ready to send your son or daughter off to College to start their new life as student athletes , take solace in the fact that they are not really leaving home. Although walking past their empty bedroom may create a painful moment , they will return home again and again and again. They will grow up before your eyes. You can anticipate taking that wonderful drive to their first college game. They will be home for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas and Hanukkah. Oh how lucky we are to have that privilege of expecting and anticipating their return.

God bless Greg Buckley and his parents. They and other service families are the fabric of our society...for without them , we would live in an unrecognizable world of fear , repression and fractured freedoms. I only wish we did not have to sacrifice our youth to keep these barbarians at bay. God bless America and all those that serve in our armed forces. May they return home to their bed rooms to live in the great Country they help fortify. We can thank them for the privilege of having the opportunity to look forward to our son or daughter`s next lacrosse game.

Regards,
Ken Miller
Ken Miller is the owner and founder of Everest Recruiting Consulting. Ken has been involved in the game of lacrosse for over 30 years. He was a player at the University of North Carolina and he also runs a boys travel team based out of Long Island called the Long Island Sting.

The Everest team consists of Ken and Scott Anderson, the former men’s lacrosse coach at Harvard University, and Charles Grantham, the form Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the Wharton School, Graduate Division, at the University of Pennsylvania. Grantham is also the founder of Athletes for a Better Education.

The Everest team helps families make sense of the complexities of the recruiting process in their efforts to afford their son or daughter the best education possible at the college level. Over the last seven years, the team at Everest has assisted over 400 recruited athletes and their families in their college search. Visit them at. WWW.EVERESTLAXRECRUITING.COM